Things We Wish We Could Say

de·duct·i·ble dəˈdəktəb(ə) noun NORTH AMERICAN 1 . (in an insurance policy) a specified amount of money that the insured must pay before an insurance company will pay a claim. This is a PSA Working in the medical field we are finding more and more often people do not understand insurance. And I don't blame you (well, not entirely). Insurance is confusing. And frustrating. And usually seems unfair and ridiculous. But, if you are going to have it and pay for the premium you should probably at least try to understand it so that when you get a bill from your doctor you aren't floored by what it says.  The very first thing I think people need to learn and understand is what a deductible is. Most insurances have it and as of the last couple years they seem to have higher and higher deductibles. What you need to know about this, what is most important, is that you have to pay this (usually ridiculous) amount before they will pay a cent of your med...

This is a joke in our office because what most parents think is a fever and what is medically considered a fever are different. If this is news to you, don't feel bad. Like I said, most parents don't know. We get a lot of nurse calls of parents worried about the fever their child has. The nurse just loves when she asks how high it is and the answer is 99.6. An actual fever is anything above 102* F. If it is lower than 102 they actually recommend not treating it because the body is just trying to fight off whatever it is that's bothering it. (However, giving Tylenol/Motrin for a fever lower than 102 isn't bad, and usually helps reduce the pain or discomfort they are having.) Anyway...we have a nurse who is not shy about letting parents know that their child doesn't have a fever. Of course she does it in a nice way but one night, when we were working late (that's when everything gets funnier) and she had taken a lot of "fever" calls, we told her she ...